DE20110628U1 - Guided gripping hook - Google Patents

Description

' Guided grappling hook

The innovation concerns a curved gripping hook for transport equipment when engaging and disengaging from an object or under an object.

To engage a gripping hook of a transport device under a flat workpiece or in an object, for example a pallet from the side from a rest position, it is known to swing the gripping hook towards the object. (Catalog of the company DE-STA-CO Metallerzeugnisse GmbH for the automation power clamp KS 82 E 01CO). Here, a clamping lever for clamping an object swings 90° around a joint on the head of the clamp. This clamping lever can be shaped like a gripping hook that swings 90° to grip under the workpiece. To move the workpiece, the entire clamp is moved with the gripping hook engaged. Sufficient space must be provided for the gripping hook to swing. This gripping hook cannot be used in narrow, hard-to-reach places.

For such use of a gripping hook, a swivel-lowering clamping element from Hilma-Römhild GmbH is known from the 2/1993 catalog. This swivel-lowering clamping element consists of a guided piston mounted in a cylinder, which rotates around itself during part of the stroke and in doing so rotates the gripping hook attached to the piston into or under the object. By sliding the piston with the gripping hook next to the object to be gripped and rotating the gripping hook into or under the object, gripping is possible even in narrow places with optimal use of the free space. Two independent drives are required for this - one for lowering, the other for rotating. By screwing in the gripping hook, aligning a pallet during gripping is only possible to a limited extent.

The aim and task of the innovation is to find a guided gripping hook that, with optimal use of the free space, slides next to the object to be gripped by means of a drive and swings into or under the object, aligning it.

The solution to this problem is the subject of the first protection claim. Further embodiments of the innovation are the subject of the subsequent protection claims.

The gripping hook, which is guided in a curve when engaging and disengaging in or under an object, can be lowered or raised to the side of the object. The curve guide causes the gripping hook to swing into or under the object due to the driving force for the lowering or raising process almost at the end of the lowering process or vice versa before and at the beginning of the lifting process and vice versa when releasing. For this purpose, the gripping hook is connected to a gripper carrier of a transport device at two points and can be moved relative to the gripper carrier by a force-transmitting rod that is articulated close to the free end of the gripping hook. There is an elongated hole in the gripping hook into which a pin that is firmly mounted in the gripper carrier at the first point engages. In addition, the end of the gripping hook facing away from the free end bears

a guide pin forming the second point, which engages in a guide curve attached to the gripper carrier.

The rod, which is retracted when the gripping hook is at rest, holds the gripping hook above the object to be lifted, so that it is free to move its support. If it is to be lifted from its support, the rod is extended and initially pushes the gripping hook almost vertically downwards according to the corresponding curved guides. Only at the end of the downward movement does the guide curve initiate the swinging of the gripping hook towards the object.

The innovation will be explained in more detail below using an example. The accompanying drawing shows a side view of a gripping hook.

A gripping hook 2 with a pin 4 guided in an elongated hole 3 and a guide pin 6 guided in a guide curve 5 is attached to a gripper carrier 1 carried by a transport device (not shown). A piston rod 8 driven by a pneumatic cylinder 7 movably mounted on the gripper carrier 1 is attached via a joint 9 to the free end of the gripping hook 2 facing away from the hook side. The guide curve 5 is located in a tab 10 firmly attached to the gripper carrier 1. The pin 4, which transmits the force from the gripper carrier 1 to the gripping hook 2 when it is extended and hooked in, is firmly connected to the gripper carrier 1 via a second tab 11. In the drawing, the gripping hook 2 is in the working position and grips under an object 12 to be transported. In order to release the gripping hook 2 from the object 12 and to lift it into a rest position above the object 1 so that the object 12 can be moved unhindered in the X and Y directions by means of its support, the piston rod 8 is pulled into the pneumatic cylinder 7 and the gripping hook 2, freed from its load, swings in the direction of arrow X, initially due to the guide curve 5. Its movement in the direction of arrow Z is initially slight. As the retraction process continues, the gripping hook 2 moves in the direction of arrow Z due to the interaction of the elongated hole 3 and the guide curve 5, while no movement in the direction of arrow X occurs.

Claims (3)

1) Guided gripping hook for engaging and disengaging under or in an object, which can be lowered laterally next to the object, characterized in that the gripping hook ( 2 ) is connected to a gripper carrier ( 1 ) via two points in a curved manner and can be moved relative to the gripper carrier ( 1 ) by a rod ( 8 ) which is articulated close to the free end of the gripping hook ( 2 ). 2) Guided gripping hook according to claim 1, characterized in that in the gripping hook ( 2 ) there is an elongated hole ( 3 ) extending along the gripping hook ( 2 ), into which a pin ( 4 ) mounted in the gripper carrier ( 1 ) engages, and that the end of the gripping hook ( 2 ) facing away from the free end carries a guide pin ( 6 ) which engages in a guide curve ( 5 ) located on the gripper carrier ( 1 ). 3) Guided gripping hook according to claim 1, characterized in that the gripping hook ( 2 ) and the rod ( 8 ) are at an acute angle to each other.